Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Was it really so awful, my sending an email to everyone in my contact list? That I had to be put in time-out for awhile?

I won't be posting photos for awhile :( , although maybe I'll wander over here from time to time in the long weeks ahead. . . .

It seems that my hard drive got corrupted and started to fail. Being under a Dell warranty, they sent me a new hard drive. I installed it, all was looking good, I attempted to recover some data, and the whole system crashed!

Crashed as in putting me into some kind of crazy loop, and perhaps even denying the existence of the operating system! So a very nice guy on Dell chat spent two hours with me trying to trouble shoot it, run strange diagnostics from the point of booting the computer. . . and although my computer claimed things were fine, it kept shutting down completely, and getting very, very hot!

Poor Doug, he happened to be near the power cord the first time it shut down, and I thought he'd stepped on it!

We started the testing again, and again it shut down completely! And was even hotter. The Dell guy promptly instructed me on boxing it up and Fed Ex-ing it to them.

But I NEED photoshop!!!!!!!!!!! And it snowed today.(Let the whining begin. . . .).

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Oh crap! Don't you just hate it when you mean to send something to a just a few family members, but instead you send a list--an extensive list-- of "favorite" bars in Playa del Carmen to everyone in your email contact list? With the top 15 favorite underlined? And conveniently organized into 5 categories of bars?(And nary a word that you copy and pasted this info, rather than personally experienced each one?)

Why, oh why, couldn't it have been the lovely guide to Chitzen Itza, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, that went to all of the ministers, past and present, of your church, the congregation, and all your physicians?

A re-enactment:

At least a list of restaurants was included as well. . .

And to those of you who have been asking whether you are being invited: I don't think I can get a table for 300.

Those of you have asked if I've danced on the tables in the bars in Playa del Carmen: No.

And no, I have personally acquired a thousand dollar bar tab at Senor Frogs.

And no, I have not spent half of my adult life in the bars of Mexico, although, oh, how I would have loved to have escaped the vicious temperatures and ugliness of North Dakota this whole winter!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Yep, "March" has been retired. It's inadequate. It does not sufficiently explain the ugliness of this foul, spirit-devouring month. From now on, I declare that the 3rd month of the year in North Dakota will be called "Snirt-Pox." As in Snirt-Pox the 3rd, all the way up to (God help us!) the 31st of Snirt-Pox.

Snirt, because the mixture of snow and dirt makes snirt, and we have it all over the city right now, in ugly, ugly pox-like piles waiting for a hint of above-zero temperatures. Witness, one of the pox:

So next time, when you are in traffic and consumed by road rage, please think twice before wishing a pox on your fellow drivers, because it could be a snirt-pox.

"But Wait, Angela!", you might say, "what about white balance? You've got all middle-grey! Fix that white!" Nope, this is it; it IS middle grey all over North Dakota right now, until the month of Snirt-Pox is over.

"But Wait, WAIT, Angela!", you might say, "you can't possibly leave us with such an ugly picture!" And you're right; I can't.

Here's something that won't make your retinas explode, like snirt-poxes. Here's a beautiful cyclamen that's been bravely blooming all winter in my office:

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Chuck and Doug revealed themselves to be aliens from outer space (or maybe from Texas). I went out to dinner last night with my sweet Douglas and good friends Chuck and Ute, and this was the most startling revelation!

Here's the proof, and you know it must be real, because you're reading it on the internet, and because this is an un-edited photo:Now, here is the photo edited in Photoshop. First I did noise reduction, followed by the creation of many adjustment layers to pull down the glowing green and red. And, blah. . . still off in the color:

So, next I just did a simple color wash with an action, and they might be pale, but that's how you can hide your own aliens from outer space from the government if you want to; just use Photoshop--easy peasy!

By the way, it's very useful to dine with aliens. Chuck, who I know to be a guy that often tries to be helpful to people, noted that my steak was not the well-done that I requested. He turned his laser eyes on it, and fixed it right up!

(Now, if only the aliens could also zap some heat into our STILL minus 25 to minus 35 degrees in this wretched state!)